For decades, questions have swirled over whether America's intelligence community played a role in President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Those questions are likely to grow louder following the release of documents which show that a CIA operative had ties with the man who is alleged to have killed Kennedy. 

Documents released thanks to executive order signed by President Trump

According to Axios, the documents are among a collection of material that was released this past Thursday under an executive order from President Donald Trump.

Signed in March, the order made public all records "previously withheld for classification that are part of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection."

Axios noted how one of the documents is a CIA memo from January of 1963 concerning George Joannides, who served as deputy chief of the agency's Miami branch.

His job involved overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare," a role which included providing funding and direction to an anti-communist Cuban student group known as the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil (DRE).

CIA long denied use of alias and connections with Cuban student group

The 1963 memo instructed Joannides to adopt the alias of "Howard Gebler" and to acquire a driver's license bearing that name.

Axios pointed out how the CIA has hitherto denied that any of its officers used the "Howard Gebler" alias or that it had any connection to DRE.

The website also recalled how three months prior to Kennedy's fatal shooting on November 22, 1963, alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald got into a confrontation with DRE members on a New Orleans street corner.

What's more, Oswald participated in a televised debate with a DRE representative just two weeks following the scuffle on August 21.

Allegations that CIA obstructed House committee

After Oswald was arrested and then murdered while in police custody by nightclub owner Jack Ruby, DRE's newsletter highlighted Oswald's pro-communist views, information which was later repeated by mainstream media outlets.

Axios recalled how in 1962, the Pentagon put together a plan known as Operation Northwoods, which involved staging a false-flag attack that could be blamed on Cuba.

Meanwhile, former House Select Committee on Assassinations staffer Dan Hardway submitted a written statement to the House Oversight Committee in May which alleged that Joannides helped obstruct efforts to investigate Kennedy's killing.

He asserted that "the CIA ran an illegal, domestic covert operation involving at least one undercover agent to subvert and obstruct the House Select Committee on Assassinations."